The Limits of Possible Explanation

[Mark]

There may be a "first cause" but if so, it is futile to seek its cause.

But how would you make sure that it IS the first cause otherwise? It is a working hypothesis wouldn't it?

Etc.

Indeed, but that isn't my point. My argument doesn't require that I, or anyone, know that the entire set of existing things has been reduced to a first cause. Frankly I think the whole idea of a first cause is a little silly, but that also isn't essential to my argument.

The point is this: however certain or uncertain we may be of what the set of all existing things consists of, and however certain or uncertain we may be of the explanations we have constructed that relate these things to each other, we will never have an explanation for the whole shebang. This follows not from any assumptions about the state of our future knowledge, but from what explanation is.

I don't know whether this is "all right" or not, given how many people mistakenly imagine that there will one day be an ultimate explanation of all this, but it is what it is, and nothing can change it.